Fox & Friends ponders whether Trump's wall might've just been 'symbolic'
Eight months into the Trump presidency and still no sign of his promised border wall, Fox & Friends is starting to wonder if President Trump may have been speaking metaphorically when he proposed such a barrier on the U.S.-Mexico border. "[H]as the wall almost become symbolic?" Fox & Friends co-host Steve Doocy pondered Thursday. "I know the president ran on it. It was a mantra. But at the same time, border crossings have gone down dramatically and you were talking about how the wall exists in certain forms and there's money to go to it ... but do you think we're going to get to the point where maybe they won't build the wall?"
The debate was sparked by Trump's Thursday morning tweet insisting that his "WALL" was "already under construction in the form of new renovation of old and existing fences and walls." He said it would "continue to be built." Trump posted the tweet the morning after his dinner with Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-N.Y.) and House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.), who said Trump at the sit-down agreed to "work out a package of border security, excluding the wall."
Former Republican congressman Jason Chaffetz, who recently joined Fox News as a contributor, swooped in to try to explain why Trump, who led chants of "build that wall" at his rallies, was now seemingly setting aside his promised wall while simultaneously suggesting it was already being built.
The Week
Escape your echo chamber. Get the facts behind the news, plus analysis from multiple perspectives.
Sign up for The Week's Free Newsletters
From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.
From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.
Chaffetz claimed Trump "doesn't need congressional authority to build the wall" because it's "already there." But then he said Trump does need funding, and it's "solely in the camp of the United States Congress to fund what the president promised he would do." Chaffetz said Trump will build the allegedly already built wall so long as Congress, whose authority Chaffetz claimed Trump does not need, will "step up and actually fund it."
Watch the discussion over at Mediaite.
A free daily email with the biggest news stories of the day – and the best features from TheWeek.com
-
How Tesla has put Elon Musk on track to be the world’s first trillionaireIn The Spotlight The package agreed by the Tesla board outlines several key milestones over a 10-year period
-
Cop30: is the UN climate summit over before it begins?Today’s Big Question Trump administration will not send any high-level representatives, while most nations failed to submit updated plans for cutting greenhouse gas emissions
-
‘The Big Crunch’: why science is divided over the future of the universeThe Explainer New study upends the prevailing theory about dark matter and says it is weakening
-
Has Zohran Mamdani shown the Democrats how to win again?Today’s Big Question New York City mayoral election touted as victory for left-wing populists but moderate centrist wins elsewhere present more complex path for Democratic Party
-
Senate votes to kill Trump’s Brazil tariffSpeed Read Five Senate Republicans joined the Democrats in rebuking Trump’s import tax
-
Border Patrol gets scrutiny in court, gains power in ICESpeed Read Half of the new ICE directors are reportedly from DHS’s more aggressive Customs and Border Protection branch
-
Shutdown stalemate nears key pain pointsSpeed Read A federal employee union called for the Democrats to to stand down four weeks into the government standoff
-
Trump vows new tariffs on Canada over Reagan adspeed read The ad that offended the president has Ronald Reagan explaining why import taxes hurt the economy
-
NY attorney general asks public for ICE raid footageSpeed Read Rep. Dan Goldman claims ICE wrongly detained four US citizens in the Canal Street raid and held them for a whole day without charges
-
Trump’s huge ballroom to replace razed East WingSpeed Read The White House’s east wing is being torn down amid ballroom construction
-
Trump expands boat strikes to Pacific, killing 5 moreSpeed Read The US military destroyed two more alleged drug smuggling boats in international waters